USA: New York City Council Honors Columbia Law School’s Immigration Defense Externship

"Their professors, practitioners, and students provide hope to immigrants entangled in our country's dysfunctional immigration system.  Their victories, large and small, have impacted countless New Yorkers in individual cases and in the groundbreaking legal precedent they set."

Pictured left to right: Julie Braker '13 (fall 2012 teaching assistant);
Ellen Chapnick, Columbia Law School’s Dean for Social Justice Initiatives;
Shannon  McKinnon (staff attorney); Maria Navarro (staff attorney);
Council Member Daniel Dromm; Olivia Cassin (staff attorney);
Faiza Sayed '12  (fall 2011 teaching assistant). (Photo Columbia Law School)

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: Ahmadiyya Times
By Staff writer | April 26, 2011

New York: —  The Immigration Defense Externship program at Columbia Law School was honored by the New York City Council for its service to New York City’s immigrants, it is reported by the school website.

Coinciding with Immigration Heritage Week, a Proclamation was presented to representatives of the Law School at a City Council meeting on April 18.

Christine Quinn, Council Speaker, and Council Member Daniel Dromm, chair of the Council’s Committee on Immigration, presented the Proclamation.

Dromin expressed pleasure for honoring the Columbia Law School’s immigration externship programs, saying, "Their professors, practitioners, and students provide hope to immigrants entangled in our country's dysfunctional immigration system.  Their victories, large and small, have impacted countless New Yorkers in individual cases and in the groundbreaking legal precedent they set."

Faiza Sayed, a ’12 JD candidate at Columbia Law School, twice participated in the program.

Ms. Sayed explained that through the Immigration Defense Externship Columbia Law School students work at the Legal Aid Society's immigration unit for a semester.

Students help with all aspects of the representation from interviewing clients and family members to legal research and writing to representing immigrants in immigration court.

“Each student is paired with a Legal Aid attorney who defends immigrants in deportation proceedings in New York City,” says Ms. Sayed.

Ms. Sayed participated in the externship as a student during the fall semester of her second-year at Columbia and then served as the Teaching Assistant the fall semester of her third-year.

Faiza Sayed also served as the Executive Sidebar Editor of the Columbia Law Review.

 -- USA: New York City Council Honors Columbia Law School’s Immigration Defense Externship
  -- Ahmadiyya Times
  -- Edited by Imran Jattala. Follow on Twitter: @IJattala


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